People may hear "truck accident" and picture a loaded 18-wheeler plowing into highway traffic, but some of the most serious—and most overlooked—accidents involve specialized trucks designed for specific kinds of work. For example, bucket trucks (also called boom trucks or cherry pickers) present unique hazards apart from those of other commercial vehicles. So how is an accident with a bucket truck different from other truck accidents?

Answer: Accidents involving bucket trucks differ from other commercial vehicle crashes due to their unique equipment, uses, and operational hazards.

Understanding what makes these accidents different requires a closer look at the roles bucket trucks play, the equipment they use, and the environments in which they operate. By examining these factors, we can better understand the risks involved and how they may lead to serious injuries.

What is a Bucket Truck?

Many people have likely seen a bucket truck at one point or another, even if they didn't know what to call it. Bucket trucks are utility vehicles with extendable hydraulic arms ("booms") that end in large buckets or railed platforms, which workers use to access high places.

The trucks are often used to repair electric lines, to trim trees, and to perform construction or maintenance on tall buildings, but like any other vehicle they are prone to occasional accidents—both those common to any vehicle and a few more specific to their unique build and purpose.

What Are Some Common Types of Bucket Truck Accident?

Specific as their purpose may be, bucket trucks are still commercial trucks, which means they have many of the same accident risks as other vehicles. The following are a few of the more conventional ways this specialized vehicle might end up in a crash:

• Driver Errors: Like just about any vehicle, a bucket truck is only as safe as the person driving it. A careless or untrained operator can make many mistakes that compromise both his safety and that of other people near the truck, such as:
  • Speeding - Bucket trucks are often used by electrical or cable companies to reach broken or dangling wires suspended from electrical poles, which those companies often regard as emergency situations. A boom truck driver racing across town with his mind on the job ahead may not take proper care in traffic.
  • Driver fatigue - While federal regulations forbid commercial drivers from working more than 14 hours at a time, emergencies (like a storm knocking down city power lines) often lead to bucket truck drivers exceeding that limit. The longer they're in action, the greater the risk that they'll get too tired to drive normally.
  • Driver distraction - In many cases work truck drivers must stay in almost constant contact with their dispatchers and supervisors. Whether they're on their cell phone, CB radio, laptop, or walkie-talkie, the devices are stealing focus from the road. Such distractions sometimes cause them to hit other vehicles, pedestrians, or even buildings.
  • Untrained operator - Anyone driving a commercial truck requires training above and beyond that needed for a normal driver's license. That's just as true for bucket truck operators, and sending out an unprepared work crew drastically increases the chances of something going wrong.
• Vehicle Malfunctions: We've seen more than a few cases where a truck driver was suspected of being careless, only to later discover that something in or on the truck (brakes, tires, wiring, engine) failed just before the accident. Sometimes that was due to its owners' carelessness about maintenance, while others turned out to be manufactured or designed improperly. Either way, the result was a misfire of a critical part and a resulting crash.

While it's useful to know about some conventional ways a truck accident might occur, the things listed above aren't necessarily that specific to bucket trucks. As our title suggests, we want to talk about some inherent dangers more closely related to their design and purpose.

What are Some Accident Types More Unique to Bucket Trucks?

While bucket trucks share some accident risks with other commercial vehicles, they also carry dangers that are largely specific to their specialized uses, including the following:

• Electrical Hazards - Working around power lines, particularly fallen or damaged ones, carries some risk of exposure to thousands of volts of electricity. In more than a few instances a bucket or worker has accidentally touched live wires and become an unwilling conductor. Other times the extending bucket has snapped power lines and sent them to the ground below. The wires then made contact with other workers or passersby and caused them catastrophic injuries.
• Falls - A telescoping bucket or platform comes with some gravity-related risks for its rider. Without a harness secured to the bucket, sudden shifts could send an unstable worker anywhere from 15 to 60 feet down to the ground. Any equipment or tools dropped from the extended platform can also pose a danger to people below.
• Bucket impacts - If the boom operator swings or retracts the arm too quickly, there's a chance it or the attached bucket will make contact with something it shouldn't—power lines, vehicles, people—and cause serious damage. That's easily avoided with proper care, but it happens more often than it should.
• Stopped truck/outrigger crashes - Boom trucks sometimes stop in or across traffic lanes to access a problem site. The boom extending from the parked truck creates a higher center of gravity and greater potential for overturns. To help hold the truck in place, stabilizers or outriggers may be extended from its sides. However, those outriggers may enter other traffic lanes. Safety measures like signs and flaggers should be used to prevent crashes with other vehicles, but we've seen more than a few accidents where those precautions weren't taken.
• Machinery malfunctions - While not overly common, people sometimes get caught in the hydraulic assembly that extends and retracts the boom—particularly if the machinery breaks or malfunctions and they're working on it. Thousands of pounds of hydraulic pressure exerted on a human body can cost victims limbs or even their lives.

Given the serious and often preventable nature of these accidents, it's important to understand what legal options are available to those who are injured as a result. A lot of that will depend on who is actually considered responsible for what happened.

Who Might Be Liable for a Bucket Truck Accident?

People hurt in accidents with bucket trucks often get caught up in a finger-pointing contest. Many companies who handle power line or cable work hire third-party contractors to handle the actual jobs, so when it's time to take responsibility for injuring someone those companies (and sometimes the truck's manufacturer and maintainer) typically butt heads. That's a lot of cooks in the kitchen, so how does an attorney find out who's liable?

Generally speaking, the first step is always investigation—the more details you can prove, the better off your case will be. Experienced attorneys hire accident reconstruction experts and forensic analysts with the right tools and training to fil in the many gaps often left by police reports. By the time they've digitally reconstructed the crash, examined the vehicles involved, and looked into any electronic data (black box records, dashcam footage, cell phone histories, etc), they can often paint a picture of the "how" and "why" of an accident.

Another important step is determining who was in charge of the job. Even if the actual workers were contractors, Texas courts have historically said that a company who provides them with tools, instructions, a truck, and a deadline is for all intents and purposes their employer—which would make it liable if they screwed up on the job. If they brought their own gear and set their own hours, though, then the company who contracted them might have better luck excusing itself from fault.

Tracing that chain of responsibility back to its source is rarely easy, as no one involved is likely to volunteer for blame. A good attorney will cut through all the bickering and buck-passing and identify who or what should be held accountable for the damage done.

Grossman Law Is Here to Help

Accidents involving bucket trucks present a distinct set of risks and legal challenges compared to other commercial vehicle incidents. When someone is hurt in a bucket truck accident, determining liability can be complex due to the involvement of multiple parties and unclear chains of command. Victims often face resistance from well-defended companies, making strong legal representation essential to holding the right parties accountable.

The Texas truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have decades of experience helping people who were hurt or lost a loved one in commercial truck accidents, including those with bucket trucks. If you have additional questions or if you'd like to talk with one of our attorneys about your or a loved one's incident, reach out to Grossman Law Offices today for a free and confidential consultation.